Milestones

DIED Two days after losing a bid for re-election as mayor of Jackson, Miss.--and four days before the start of his third trial for demolishing a suspected drug den without a warrant--Frank Melton, 60, succumbed to heart failure. A polarizing figure, Melton was known for patrolling Jackson's streets with a police badge and guns even though he was not a licensed officer.

• After childhood polio paralyzed her from the neck down, North Carolina native Martha Mason, 71, spent more than 60 years living in a 7-ft., 880-lb. iron lung that allowed her to breathe without tubes. Despite her condition, Mason...